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Zakhari Mirkin, fils d'un industriel juif de Pétersbourg, a rompu avec son milieu d'origine. Dans les quartiers populaires de Varsovie, il part à la rencontre de sa judéité – mais aussi de son identité sociale. Le deuxième volet d'une fresque en 3 volumes, chef-d'œuvre du " Zola yiddish ", enfin disponible au format poche.
Bouleversé par la révélation de sa judéité, Zakhari Mirkin, fils d'un riche homme d'affaires, a quitté Pétersbourg pour se perdre et se trouver dans les masses juives de l'Empire russe.
Adieu le faste bourgeois : Zakhari loge parmi les prolétaires et les petits artisans de Varsovie, qui rêvent d'émancipation, d'assimilation ou de sionisme. Dans ce quartier surpeuplé aux coutumes impénétrables, on se bat pour manger et survivre, dans le dénuement et la solidarité. Mais on y est avide de savoir, et l'on commente les idées nouvelles comme naguère le Talmud. Et, les soirs de shabbat, on entonne en yiddish des chants révolutionnaires.
C'est dans ce bouillonnement social et intellectuel que Zakhari pense avoir trouvé son lieu. Mais s'est-il trouvé lui- même ? N'est-il qu'un " goy parlant yiddish " ? À la veille de la révolution d'Octobre, les manifestations ouvrières du 1er Mai, sous les drapeaux rouges, vont lui montrer la voie de la métamorphose.
Bouleversé par la révélation de sa judéité, Zakhari Mirkin, fils d'un riche homme d'affaires, a quitté Pétersbourg pour se perdre et se trouver dans les masses juives de l'Empire russe.
Adieu le faste bourgeois : Zakhari loge parmi les prolétaires et les petits artisans de Varsovie, qui rêvent d'émancipation, d'assimilation ou de sionisme. Dans ce quartier surpeuplé aux coutumes impénétrables, on se bat pour manger et survivre, dans le dénuement et la solidarité. Mais on y est avide de savoir, et l'on commente les idées nouvelles comme naguère le Talmud. Et, les soirs de shabbat, on entonne en yiddish des chants révolutionnaires.
C'est dans ce bouillonnement social et intellectuel que Zakhari pense avoir trouvé son lieu. Mais s'est-il trouvé lui- même ? N'est-il qu'un " goy parlant yiddish " ? À la veille de la révolution d'Octobre, les manifestations ouvrières du 1er Mai, sous les drapeaux rouges, vont lui montrer la voie de la métamorphose.
432 pages, Pocket Book
First published January 1, 1929
About the author
Sholem Asch
258 books38 followersPolish-American writer Sholem Asch (also written Shalom Ash, Yiddish: שלום אַש, Polish: Szalom Asz) sought to reconcile Judaism and Christianity in his controversial novels, such as
The Nazarene
(1939). Sholem Asch composed dramas and essays in the Yiddish language.
Frajda Malka bore Asch and nine other children to Moszek Asz, a cattle-dealer and innkeeper. Asch received a traditional Hasidic eduction and later obtained a more liberal education at Włocławek, where he supported himself by writing letters for the illiterate townspeople. He moved to Warsaw and met and married Mathilde Shapiro, the daughter of Menahem Mendel Shapiro.
The Haskalah or Hebrew enlightenment initially influenced Asch. His earliest writing was in Hebrew, but Isaac Leib Peretz convinced him to switch to Yiddish. The plot of God of Vengeance , his drama of 1907. features a lesbian relationship in a brothel. He traveled to Palestine in 1908 and to the United States in 1910, finally emigrating to the latter in 1914. He sat out World War I in the United States and was naturalized as a citizen in 1920.
His Kiddush ha-Shem (1919), one of the earliest historical novels in modern Yiddish literature, concerns the anti-Semitic uprising of Khmelnytsky in mid-17th century Ukraine. In 1920, in honor of his 40th birthday, a committee of his fans published a 12-volume set of his collected works (up to that time).
When his play God of Vengeance was performed on Broadway in 1923, authorities arrested and successfully prosecuted the entire cast on obscenity charges. (However, the convictions were overturned on appeal.) But in Europe, the play was popular was popular enough to be translated into German, Polish, Russian, Hebrew, Italian, Czech, Romanian, and Norwegian.
His trilogy Farn Mabul or Before the Flood , translated into English as Three Cities 1929-31), describes early 20th century Jewish life in Saint Petersburg, Warsaw, and Moscow. In 1932, the republic of Poland awarded him the decoration of Polonia Restituta, and in the same year he was elected honorary president of the Yiddish PEN Club.
He later moved to France and visited Palestine again in 1936. His Dos Gezang fun Tol ( The Song of the Valley ), about the halutzim or Zionist pioneers in Palestine, reflects that visit. His next work, Bayrn Opgrunt (1937), translated into English as The Precipice , is set in Germany during the hyperinflation of the 1920s. In 1939, he returned to the United States.
His trilogy The Apostle (1939), The Nazarene (1943) and Mary (1949), which dealt with figures from the New Testament, offended many Jews. The Forward , the leading Yiddish language newspaper of New York, dropped him as a writer and openly attacked him for supposedly promoting Christianity.
Asch spent most his last two years in Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, Israel but died in London. His house in Bat Yam now houses his namesake museum. Yale University holds the bulk of his library, which contains rare books and manuscripts, including some of his own works.
Frajda Malka bore Asch and nine other children to Moszek Asz, a cattle-dealer and innkeeper. Asch received a traditional Hasidic eduction and later obtained a more liberal education at Włocławek, where he supported himself by writing letters for the illiterate townspeople. He moved to Warsaw and met and married Mathilde Shapiro, the daughter of Menahem Mendel Shapiro.
The Haskalah or Hebrew enlightenment initially influenced Asch. His earliest writing was in Hebrew, but Isaac Leib Peretz convinced him to switch to Yiddish. The plot of God of Vengeance , his drama of 1907. features a lesbian relationship in a brothel. He traveled to Palestine in 1908 and to the United States in 1910, finally emigrating to the latter in 1914. He sat out World War I in the United States and was naturalized as a citizen in 1920.
His Kiddush ha-Shem (1919), one of the earliest historical novels in modern Yiddish literature, concerns the anti-Semitic uprising of Khmelnytsky in mid-17th century Ukraine. In 1920, in honor of his 40th birthday, a committee of his fans published a 12-volume set of his collected works (up to that time).
When his play God of Vengeance was performed on Broadway in 1923, authorities arrested and successfully prosecuted the entire cast on obscenity charges. (However, the convictions were overturned on appeal.) But in Europe, the play was popular was popular enough to be translated into German, Polish, Russian, Hebrew, Italian, Czech, Romanian, and Norwegian.
His trilogy Farn Mabul or Before the Flood , translated into English as Three Cities 1929-31), describes early 20th century Jewish life in Saint Petersburg, Warsaw, and Moscow. In 1932, the republic of Poland awarded him the decoration of Polonia Restituta, and in the same year he was elected honorary president of the Yiddish PEN Club.
He later moved to France and visited Palestine again in 1936. His Dos Gezang fun Tol ( The Song of the Valley ), about the halutzim or Zionist pioneers in Palestine, reflects that visit. His next work, Bayrn Opgrunt (1937), translated into English as The Precipice , is set in Germany during the hyperinflation of the 1920s. In 1939, he returned to the United States.
His trilogy The Apostle (1939), The Nazarene (1943) and Mary (1949), which dealt with figures from the New Testament, offended many Jews. The Forward , the leading Yiddish language newspaper of New York, dropped him as a writer and openly attacked him for supposedly promoting Christianity.
Asch spent most his last two years in Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, Israel but died in London. His house in Bat Yam now houses his namesake museum. Yale University holds the bulk of his library, which contains rare books and manuscripts, including some of his own works.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 27, 2020
Trzeba przyznać, że Asz jest mistrzem słowa i czyta się go genialnie. To fascynująca wyprawa do Warszawy i Łodzi w przededniu Wielkiej Wojny. Opis życia mieszkańców kamienicy żydowskiej Warszawy, starego dyrektora próbującego prowadzić szkołę dla młodych i spinać koniec z końcem, młodego Litwaka, którego trzeba wyleczyć z syjonizmu i pchnąć na drogę rewolucji i socjalizmu, ubogich rzemieślników i drobny proletariat walczący z dnia na dzień o byt.
Całość czasami wydaje się cukierkowa, współpraca z gojem mieszkającym w jednym z pokojów, który jednego dnia wplata w swoje słowa jidyszyzmy, by drugiego w złości być antysemitą, współpracy żydowskich socjalistów z polskimi, wspólny pochód 1 majowy i tragedia losów. Jednak to wciąż kawałek świetnej literatury.
Całość czasami wydaje się cukierkowa, współpraca z gojem mieszkającym w jednym z pokojów, który jednego dnia wplata w swoje słowa jidyszyzmy, by drugiego w złości być antysemitą, współpracy żydowskich socjalistów z polskimi, wspólny pochód 1 majowy i tragedia losów. Jednak to wciąż kawałek świetnej literatury.
November 12, 2023
Ce roman de Schalom Asch fait suite à Petersbourg pour relater les aventures de Zakhari Mirkin dans le shtetl de Varsovie (et de Lodz) durant les années précédant le déclenchement de la 1ere guerre mondiale. Mirkin est accueilli dans la famille Hurwitz dans un milieu très pauvre mais plein de solidarité. Pour s’intégrer il refusera toute aide de son riche père resté dans la capitale impériale et se retrouvera immergé dans le bouillonnement pré révolutionnaire de l’époque.
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March 4, 2026À la différence du tome 1 (traduction de l’allemand par A. Vialatte, un des 1ers traducteurs de Kafka), ce 2eme tome est, lui, traduit du yiddish ; la poésie de la langue y gagne.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews